TURKEY: ERDOGAN SEIZES 50 CHURCHES & MONASTERIES, DECLARES THEM TURKISH STATE PROPERTY

 

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

As Turkey continues its Islamization under Erdogan, it becomes
increasingly hostile to Christians and Christianity. This fact should
give pause to the fond and foolish purveyors of “Muslim-Christian
dialogue” and Christian “outreach” to Muslims, but it won’t.

“Erdogan Seizes 50 Syriac Churches and Monasteries, Declares Them Turkish State Property,” by Patrick Poole, PJ Media, June 27, 2017:

The Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet)
has seized control of at least 50 Syriac churches, monasteries, and
cemeteries in Mardin province, report media sources from Turkey…

The Turkish-Armenian daily Agos reports:

After Mardin became a Metropolitan Municipality, its
villages were officially turned into neighbourhoods as per the law and
attached to the provincial administration. Following the legislative
amendment introduced in late 2012, the Governorate of Mardin established
a liquidation committee. The Liquidation Committee started to
redistribute in the city, the property of institutions whose legal
entity had expired. The transfer and liquidation procedures are still
ongoing.

In 2016, the Transfer,
Liquidation and Redistribution Committee of Mardin Governorate
transferred to primarily the Treasury as well as other relevant public
institutions numerous churches, monasteries, cemeteries and other assets
of the Syriac community in the districts of Mardin.

The Mor Gabriel Monastery
Foundation appealed to the decision yet the liquidation committee
rejected their appeal last May. The churches, monasteries and cemeteries
whose ownerships were given to the Treasury were then transferred to
the Diyanet.

Inquiries of the Mor Gabriel
Monastery Foundation revealed that dozens of churches and monasteries
had been transferred to the Treasury first and then allocated to the
Diyanet. And the cemeteries have been transferred to the Metropolitan
Municipality of Mardin. The maintenance of some of the churches and
monasteries are currently being provided by the Mor Gabriel Monastery
Foundation and they are opened to worship on certain days. Similarly, the cemeteries are still actively used by the Syriac community who visits them and performs burial procedures. The Syriacs have appealed to the Court for the cancellation of the decision.

“We started to file lawsuits
and in the meantime our enquiries continued” said Kuryakos Ergün, the
Chairman of Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation. Ergün said they would
appeal to the court for the cancellation of nearly 30 title deed registries.

Included in the seizure is the 1600-year-old Mor Gabriel Monastery:

Foundation of Mor Gabriel Monastery, filed a court case
at the Civil Court of First Instance in Mardin against the registration
of title deed records in the name of Treasury.

In the petition filed to the
court it has been noted that the properties subject to the court case
had been, since ancient times, under the possession and ownership of the
Foundation and the significance of Mor Gabriel Monastery has been
underlined; “Its history dates back to the 4th century AD. The Monastery
is one of the oldest monasteries in the world which is still active and
is one of the most ancient religious centers of Syriacs and the entire
world with its history of more than 1600 years.

Midyat Syriac Deyrulumur Mor
Gabriel Monastery Foundation had been established on the basis of the
imperial order of Sultan Abdülmecid Han during the Ottoman Empire in
“1267 Islamic calendar (1851/1852 Gregorian calendar) and its status was
redefined, became a legal entity, on the basis of the Foundations Law
of 13.06.1935 with no 2762.

The Foundation had been
recognised as “a religious community foundation” on the basis of a
Regulation issued in 2002 by the Directorate General of Foundation and
was included in the List of Religious Community Foundations drafted same
year. Foundations that I’m not included in this list are in not
recognised as religious community foundations.”…

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| Nick Gutteridge for the Express reports,TURKEY’S Islamist government
has stepped up its war on Christianity by seizing all the churches in
one city and declaring them state property.President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan has taken control of six churches in the war-torn southeastern
city of Diyarbakir in his latest move to squash freedom of speech and
religious movement.